From the archives, Dec. 13, 2004: The race for speaker - DeSimone has quietly worked way up ranks

State Rep. Nicholas A. Mattiello, the current House majority leader, said if he is elected the next speaker of the R.I. House of Representatives, he will choose Rep. John J. DeSimone as the next majority leader. This profile of DeSimone originally wa

EDITOR'S NOTE: State Rep. Nicholas A. Mattiello, the current House majority leader, said if he is elected the next speaker of the R.I. House of Representatives, he will choose Rep. John J. DeSimone as the next majority leader.

This profile of DeSimone was originally published Dec. 13, 2004: Colleagues describe John DeSimone as being low-profile over the years, but the Democrat is making himself heard in a bid to oust William J. Murphy as House speaker.

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PROVIDENCE -- John J. DeSimone began his State House career as a $15-a-day student page in the Senate office of former political titan John J. Bevilacqua, and his legal career at the Federal Hill law office of Bevilacqua, DeSimone & Gosz.

He credits another notable -- this one from the intensely political Providence North End -- for encouraging him and helping him win a seat in the state legislature in 1992: former Rep. Albert J. Lepore.

Lepore was the law partner of Arthur A. Coia, the Rhode Islander who, months later, would become national president of the Laborers International Union of North America.

Asked recently how, even as a teenager, he had such high-powered political and professional help, DeSimone said: "Friendships that go way back."

"At the beginning, not many people gave me a chance," DeSimone said of his winning '92 primary bid to unseat Thomas Rossi, a four-term incumbent who had beaten Lepore's son in a House contest eight years earlier.

"But don't forget, I went to school, I grew up there. I played Little League there. It's my neighborhood," DeSimone said.

Now, Democrat DeSimone is seeking help from friends far beyond the streets of Providence as he fights to oust William J. Murphy, of West Warwick, as House speaker when the General Assembly reconvenes next month.

Courting the endorsement of House Republicans, he promised to help block a proposed West Warwick casino and work with them on other GOP priorities, including reform of a "very, very generous" pension system for state employees.

He also promised: "A DeSimone leadership would be very professional -- open -- and we'd be getting a lot of work done for the people of Rhode Island."

Whether he has a chance is open to debate.

DeSimone says his list of supporters is growing. But he has also embraced a risky strategy: painting Murphy as a captive of organized labor at the risk of alienating unions that have been among his own best supporters.

His approach helped him win the endorsement of the 15-member House GOP caucus on Nov. 29. But it also earned him reproach from Donald Iannazzi, business manager of Local 1033 of the Laborers International Union: "John DeSimone is a friend and frankly, I was disappointed with the overtures and the relationship -- that he just simply seems to say 'yes, yes, yes' to any issue that the governor or the Republicans put before him."

So just who is this dark-horse candidate for House speaker?

DeSimone, 44, has a quintessential Rhode Island résumé: Our Lady of Providence High School, Providence College and, like many in Rhode Island political circles, a law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

He grew up on Admiral Street in a multifamily house where his grandfather, a master tailor who emigrated from Italy, made fur coats in the basement.

His late father, Anthony, practiced law with Joseph A. Bevilacqua, the former chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and went on to practice with Bevilacqua's sons. The younger DeSimone got his start at the firm after his father's death. His mother, Mary, raised three sons and two daughters. His family, to this day, keeps a summer house steps from Scarborough State Beach.

DeSimone married his high school sweetheart, Diane Tamboe, a Providence grade-school teacher; they now make their home on Ralston Street. He practices law on Smith Street with his older brother, Thomas, who was John Bevilacqua's legal counsel at the State House. He sends his sons, Anthony and John Jr., ages 14 and 11, to the Cranston-Johnston Catholic Regional School.

AS A LAWYER, he won the acquittal of a client, Troy E. Hewes, accused of murdering his business partner for insurance money. Hewes was later convicted of conspiring with two teenagers to commit the murder.

But these days, DeSimone says, he no longer does much criminal work, specializing in civil litigation and labor law instead.

The only clients he identified on his financial-disclosure statement to the state Ethics Commission were the town of North Providence, which he has represented as a labor lawyer since 1997, and the Providence Teachers Union, since May 2003.

Last week he pledged that if elected speaker, he would give up the teachers union as a client. DeSimone said he had been inclined to do it anyway, and that his supporters have told him "it's probably an inherent conflict."

While he does not disclose his income from the union, North Providence records show the town paid him $20,078 in 2003 for legal services. His brother, Thomas, the assistant town solicitor, was paid $25,250 in the same time period.

At the Assembly, DeSimone has been one of the less vocal House members, remembered for few, if any, public speeches or legislative accomplishments.

DeSimone was a frequent sponsor in the 1990s of an unsuccessful bill that would have provided for binding arbitration for municipal workers in contract disputes. Year after year, he also introduced a bill, promoted by the Laborers' union, that would have allowed state workers to dedicate a portion of their pay to a union pension fund without jeopardizing their state pensions.

Legislators said they were concerned the state ultimately could become obligated -- as Providence is -- to making payments to a second pension for its workers. But DeSimone said the payments would be made by union members and "wouldn't cost the state any more money."

Asked why the union had entrusted such a bill to a freshman legislator, Iannazzi said Joseph Virgilio, the late president of Local 1033, representing city workers, made the call after running into DeSimone socially.

In 1996, DeSimone was the House sponsor of another union-backed piece of legislation that expanded the state Labor Relations Board from five to seven members and effectively gave the Laborers their first seat on the board. Then-Gov. Lincoln C. Almond gave to the post to Virgilio.

From 1999 to 2001, DeSimone repeatedly introduced a bill that would have put the General Assembly, rather than the Board of Governors for Higher Education, in charge of setting state college tuition rates. But this past session, he unsuccessfully fought the current House leadership's move to assert more control over higher education appropriations, which some decried as a power grab.

Asked how he reconciled the two positions, DeSimone said his bill was "geared toward protecting residents so the tuition wouldn't go sky high. . . . What they did [with the budget] was to take away all the discretion of the Board of Governors."

DeSimone has also, over the years, sponsored bills to reduce the state's drunken-driving blood alcohol limit from .1 percent to .08 percent -- a change approved in 2003 under different sponsorship -- and to bar health insurers from limiting where customers could fill their prescriptions.

ASKED WHY he thinks more of his bills did not become law, DeSimone said: "Over the years, I've always been independent-minded and I was never supportive of John Harwood's leadership. So it is pretty hard to successfully pass legislation if you are not supportive of the leadership."

Dave Talan, co-chairman of Providence Republican Party, said DeSimone "certainly has been low-profile" through the years.

"When he first announced he was thinking of running for speaker, I couldn't picture what he looked like," Talan said. And "goodness knows we've never been shy about criticizing a Democratic legislator we think has crossed the line."

Former Senate Majority Leader Bevilacqua -- who from 1991 to 1994 worked in his law office alongside current speaker Murphy -- said DeSimone is not the type of person who likes to ring bells "but the person who tries to help people so the bell will be rung in their favor."

"There is no hidden agenda that he would ever have," Bevilacqua said. "He just looks to find out the truth. He was that way when he was a kid. He's been that way as a lawyer and so far, from what I see in his career, he's got the respect of quite a few people, apparently."

"I found him to be a very quiet and deliberative person who is very sensitive to the needs of people and very loyal to his constituency," Bevilacqua said.

DeSimone has another big fan in North Providence Mayor A. Ralph Mollis, who got to know DeSimone when they both represented the Marieville section of town. DeSimone subsequently served as a campaign volunteer and adviser during Mollis' successful run for mayor in 1996, and worked on the mayor's transition team.

Shortly after taking office, Mollis hired DeSimone and his brother, a North Providence resident, as part of a shakeup of the town's legal department. Mollis called both "exceptional" lawyers.

Mollis said DeSimone helped gain an agreement from the police union to pay a share of its health-insurance premiums. The mayor is now seeking the same concessions from clerical workers, firefighters and public works employees.

He said DeSimone has also been helpful in defending the town from union grievances, with a "close to 90 percent success rate."

The North Providence mayor said he was not surprised DeSimone had mounted a bid for House speaker.

While DeSimone is quiet, "I think there's a lot of elected officials throughout the state who have proven you don't need to be loud to be effective," Mollis said. "He's very effective in getting the job done."

Mollis said he believes that most lawmakers "respect [DeSimone's] intelligence, his aggressiveness, his willingness to work hard to get something accomplished."

But not all.

For the past two years, DeSimone has been vice chairman of the House Corporations Committee -- a title that the chairman, Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, said was given at the request of Rep. Rene Menard, D-Lincoln, a former Harwood loyalist whom Murphy had elevated to House majority whip. Murphy also appointed DeSimone one of several deputy majority leaders.

"He would perhaps stop in at the beginning to sign in for attendance purposes." But, "I will tell you this. It was rare for John to be at a committee hearing and stay to the end. . . . For the most part, John was absent even during the periods when we were voting on bills."

When DeSimone was there, Kennedy said, his insights were helpful. But he said DeSimone "has a streak of arrogance in him," and a habit of talking on his cell phone during hearings, which Kennedy called rude.

Apprised of these comments, DeSimone said: "I think you know Brian is a chairman and he obviously would like to put a perspective on this favorable to the current speaker."

But he did not deny leaving the committee room on occasion and said: "You have to understand, many of those bills are bills we've heard and seen and I'm familiar with the issues. I'm a pretty quick study."

WHILE MURPHY and his leadership team have suggested that a vengeful Harwood is helping to fuel DeSimone's leadership run, the record backs DeSimone's assertion that the two were not confidantes during Harwood's reign.

In 1998, for example, DeSimone was one of 18 Democrats who supported Rep. Frank Montanaro, D-Cranston, in an unsuccessful run for House majority leader against Harwood's candidate, Rep. Gerard Martineau, D-Woonsocket.

And in 2001, he was one of six Democrats who called for an annual audit of legislative spending, and demanded that Harwood freeze legislative hiring until one was done. Their stand had been prompted by a series of stories in The Journal about the Assembly's swelling payroll and expenses.

As for DeSimone's voting record, the National Rifle Association has ranked him a "generally pro-gun candidate." The Environmental Council of Rhode Island gives him a "B" grade; the National Federation of Independent Business, 63 percent.

His "government reform" record has improved markedly, according to scorecards compiled by the Rhode Island chapter of the national citizens advocacy group, Common Cause.

In 1997-98, DeSimone's votes matched Common Cause's positions on issues 37 percent of the time. In 1999-2000, he was up to 53 percent, but still out of step, or absent, on some votes that Common Cause deemed significant, such as his vote for an unsuccessful attempt to block the voter-mandated reduction in the size of the Assembly.

By 2003-04, DeSimone's score had risen to 76 percent, a notch above the average and above every member of Murphy's inner circle, including the speaker.

His elevated score reflected his votes to put separation of powers on the statewide ballot, an issue he had supported years before most of his Democratic colleagues, and in support of new disclosure requirements for public officials. The latter were prompted by a series of revelations about the undisclosed ties of high-level lawmakers to Blue Cross & Blue Shield, CVS and lottery-giant GTECH.

But Common Cause director H. Philip West also blamed DeSimone -- along with Murphy -- for supporting the eleventh-hour inclusion in the state budget of wording that excludes the court system and its $84-million budget from the personnel, purchasing and budget-review rules that apply to the rest of state government.

ONE RECENT morning, DeSimone slammed Murphy on the Steve Kass WPRO-radio talk show for being a captive of organized labor. "The unions control Speaker Murphy the way they've controlled no other speaker in the past," he said.

But organized labor has also helped DeSimone build his political war chest, which at last count stood at $14,318 after a summer of relatively heavy spending for a lawmaker facing token opposition.

In the three-month stretch that began July 1, DeSimone spent upward of $6,300 donating to the campaigns of certain House colleagues and treating some of them to $300 "dinner-meetings" at Capriccio and the like.

Teacher unions have been reliable contributors, including the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, whose president, Marcia Reback says, he has "a 100-percent record with us."

She cited a long list of votes, including DeSimone's opposition to a 2003 GOP effort to raise the pension contributions of state workers and teachers by 2 percentage points and support for guaranteeing prevailing wage, pension and seniority rights to charter school teachers.

The Laborers International Union of North America has given DeSimone $2,450 since 2002 through its public-employee and education PACs. But Iannazzi, business manager of one of two Laborers' locals that represent about 3,000 state workers, said if he had a vote this year, it would be with Murphy, who has shown a willingness "to work with the governor but not make blind promises to the governor."

DeSimone's courtship of the GOP -- and his alliance with Republicans during the House budget battle last summer -- also cost him the public support of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO this campaign cycle.

George Nee, the organization's secretary/treasurer, said DeSimone was cut off because he voted against the Assembly-written state budget and sided with the governor in attempting to block a veto override. Nee also derided DeSimone's pledges to Republicans, including that he would block a casino, support a definition of who constitutes a "state employee," and work to require state employees to pay a share of their health-care premiums.

"The issues that the Republicans, quote, 'interviewed' Mr. DeSimone on are all issues that are aimed at the labor movement and would do serious harm to the agenda of Working Rhode Island and the AFL-CIO agenda," Nee said. "Anybody who would support those issues would be not a friend of labor."

Beyond unions, DeSimone has built his political war chest with help from a small circle of friends from the old neighborhood, including former Rep. Lepore's lawyer son Albert Jr., and Andrew Annaldo, a former Providence councilman and now a greyhound racing industry lobbyist.

Though Annaldo describes DeSimone as a longtime friend, he was concerned about appearing to take sides in the leadership fight and wouldn't talk about him. "Things are so sensitive up there, if you are even seen with somebody, it's a problem," Annaldo said.

Neither Al Lepore Jr. nor his father responded to inquiries. Nor did Sen. Dominick Ruggerio and City Councilwoman Carol Romano, who share territory in the North End with the longtime lawmaker.

In 2003, DeSimone's contributors included Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano and his father, Anthony, who DeSimone said is his sister's godfather and was his father's law school roommate.

"We're like cousins," DeSimone said of the Senate president.

When asked about DeSimone, however, Sen. Montalbano sent word through an aide that "he is not helping Rep. DeSimone in any way in the speaker's race and doesn't wish to talk about him."